On his newly dropped mixtape Searching For Gotham, Harlem-based DJ/ producer Austin Millz does his damnedest to cover as many vibes as possible. Whether one is in the mood for mind-bending experimental urban workouts, spooky trap bangers, punchy blasts of EDM or whatever state of mind a cloud-pop cover of Rae Sremmurd’s “No Type” would satisfy, Gotham got you.

For us though, an immediate highlight emerges with an entry tucked away towards the end of the twenty-track collection. “5 A.M. In Lawrence” initially caught our ears for its production’s fogged over, slo-mo tweak on K.P. & Envyi’s late 90’s booty bass classic “Swing My Way”, but up-and-coming Massachusetts singer-songwriter Anjelihs doesn’t let the killer slab of throwback appreciation take all the spotlight, bringing his own heat to the backing track’s woozy R&B seduction as he invites us in for a play-by-play glance at his latest late-night sexcapade: “Just fuck me like you love me/ Kiss me gently and don’t you stop/…Go down, taste me/ Let go of your insecurities”.

A lesson in panty-dropping swag freaky enough to earn both R. Kelly and The Weeknd’s respective nods of approval, let’s just say we would be surprised if “5 A.M. In Lawrence” hasn’t added more than a few new babies to the world’s population by this time next year.

With all that buzzy online momentum Angel Haze had generated in the months up to her studio debut Dirty Gold, it was more than a little sad to see the narrative surrounding her highly anticipated mixtape-to-mainstream transition end up distracted with artist vs. label grief, weak album sales and mixed critical reaction. After a brief spell away though, Angel is ready to get the train moving again, scheduling for 2015 not only her second full length T.F.A.B.N./ The Flowers Are Blooming Now, but, within the next few weeks, a pre-album EP teaser In The Winter of Wet Years.

Previewing both projects is new cut “Candlxs”, a transfixing Quiet Storm ballad highlighted by both Haze’s solid singing chops and her rolling deep in the romantic feels. “Let the candles burn slow/ Forever young, I want to be in this moment/ Oh we’re just making too much love/ Til heaven calls, it’s just me and you only,” she slinks on the chorus, her sultry tone landing as the perfect compliment to the giddy cloud nine high of being “lost in the sparks” of love. Toss in an exotic arrangement from producer Troy NoKA (Miguel, Chris Brown, Frank Ocean) that cooks up a stirringly psychedelic brew of sensual flute curlicues and…erm, Mumford & Sons samples (!!), and what you end up with is a steamy number unleashed in perfect time to nab a prime spot to your ‘Boot Knockin’ Jamz’-labelled Valentine’s Day playlist.

“Nothing’s Forever”, the latest single from Aussie beatsmith-on-the-rise PACES, is one of those records that bulges with so many sugary pop thrills, it very nearly feels capable of giving you diabetes of the eardrums.

Yes, there’s some drama unfolding in the text (“You’re meeting your friends out/ I’m leaving alone/ When everyone’s looking/ You put on a show…”), but “Forever”‘s main objective seems to serving that feel-good pop ecstacy, triggering summer jam heat with a bright n’ bubbly sonic frame that explodes in synth-candied bursts of tropical-hued futuro pop, and a ear-wormy guest performance from Perth, AU-based electro-pop vocalist Kučka that neatly injects within a tune the infectious sass of turn-of-the-millennium girl group R&B.

A perfect four minute escape from the winter chill, look for the single to drop February 13th via etetc.

Marking the world’s entrance into 2015 with the surprise release of his touchingly tender “Only One”, Kanye made it clear from jump: he plans on dominating this calendar era. And, as Kanye does, he’s planning on dominating big, drastically switching up his style yet again while utilizing the icon status of none other than Paul McCartney to reign over the pop culture lands.

Coming in as the second entry in what’s shaping up to be the (what, third? Fourth?) Year of Kanye, “FourFiveSeconds”, a record boasting the super-group epic-ness of Ye, Macca and Rih Rih. Where such a line-up might lead one to think of the song going the blockbuster pop route though, “FourFive…” takes us all for a loop by venturing in the least likeliest of terrains, a refreshingly stripped-back dosage of folk-kissed acousti-balladry that finds Kanye and Rihanna giving up the prime-time soap goods as they work out very messy twangs of being human.

With “three more days til Friday”, the two basically prepare themselves to go all up on a Tuesday, their respective insides slowly simmering into rage with threats of getting a “little drunk”, “spaz”-in’, “wildin'”, and possibly ending the evening with some time spent behind bars because folks dare take their “kindness for weakness”. It’s a complete ball of confusion (Are they a battling couple, or working through their own individual sets of relationship drama?), but the vulnerability on display gives the record a note of relatability that’s far too addicting, from the bare-boned Nashville-pop melodicism embedded in those slightly off guitar plucks and chorus harmonies, to West’s amateur shower-croon, to a stand-out vocal performance from Rihanna in which her striking natural ability gets a chance to breathe through smoky fringes and edge-of-range wails, hitting goosebump-sparking peaks on an organ-and-regrets-soaked bridge that’s pure pop-craft perfection.

A deliciously unexpected fusion of the three distinct talents, “FourFiveSeconds” has left us way too anxious to hear what’s to come next from all involved.

The passing of what would have been Aaliyah’s 36th birthday on January 16th brought with it the expected barrage of remixes and covers paying honor to the late, great Baby Girl, but trumping all of these tributes ended up being Frank Ocean’s downright gorgeous remake of Aaliyah’s stripped-back cover of The Isley Brothers’ 1976 gem “At Your Best (You Are Love)”.

Consisting of little more than Frank Ocean’s spine-tingling falsetto against a chilled keyboard soundbed, his rendition brought with it a smorgasbord of aural satisfaction, whether in the way it reminded of Aaliyah and The Isley Brothers perfect-in-their-own-way respective takes, or its simple delivery of the kind of breath-taking R&B intimacy that made Ocean one of the breakouts of recent years.

Los Angeles-based Soulection rep starRo adds a new layer of arresting sonic pleasure with this remix of the Frank cut though, sending the baby-making groove to the outer-reaches of the galaxy with a futuro-minded tweaking that could best be described as starry-eyed, space jam seduction.

Sure Lil’ Wayne-as-lead-artist dropping an essential cut felt like it became a sort of lost art eons ago, with the rapper seeming to have reached a point where he just doesn’t care about the game anymore, one foot and a couple toes of his other foot resting dreams of retirement. But nostalgia for dude’s spectacular ’00’s mixtape run and an occasionally inspired flash of that old clever lyrical bite keeps so many of us still tuned into what he does next, hoping beyond hope that the rap gods will finally answer our prayers and bring us that old Wayne back.

After several release date changes, the mildly anticipated The Carter V has yet to make it to the finish line, however what we have received in the meanwhile–frustrated tweets and a gigantic lawsuit directed at both his one-time “daddy” Birdman and a record label he no longer wants to be associated with–has definitely brought new shades of intrigue and interest to an artist and career that was lingering far too long in the “ho-hum” realm.

Enter Sorry 4 The Wait 2, his second apology letter to fans as mixtape featuring him high-jacking the hottest beats of recent hip hop past. Does the project peel back Weezy’s layers for an eye-opening glimpse inside his current industry woes? No (though here’s to hoping that that has become The Carter V‘s new narrative), but the tape manages to re-awaken Wayne in another way, his ire from Industry Rule #4080 seeming to spark a creative fire under his bottom, resulting in a more entertaining-than-not seventeen track platter of charming track flips (including 2014 meme-to-mainstream highlights “Try Me”, “Coco” and “U Guessed It”); slick, rewind-worthy one-liners that resonate long after they’ve touched the mic; and an infectious anything-goes energy that comes close to reaching the home-run-hitting, avant-garde peaks of his previous #barsonbarsonbars heights.

Personal favorites include Wayne’s lethargic-cool riff on Rae Sremmurd and Mike Will Made It‘s ratchet playground b-boy anthem “No Type” (“‘Cause I ain’t got no type, no/ But when I met codeine, there was love at first Sprite…”) and his exciting interjection into the new world of weirdo Southern rap with “Fingers Hurting”, a spazzy retake of the iLoveMakonnen/ Metro Boomin’ interlude-length jam “Maneuvering”, but best of all would arguably have to be Weezy’s set-closing spin on Meek Mill‘s “Dreams and Nightmares”, a seemingly endless lyrical snap-fest perfectly positioned to send buzz for the impending Carter chapter through the atmosphere.

Hear the S4TW highlights below, then peep yet another new Wayne entry, “Amazing Amy”, a haunting obsession with crazy bae’s featuring Migos and production from London On Da Track.

The second favorite part of Frank Ocean finally getting around to releasing new music–beyond the fact that it’s new Frank Ocean music of course–is the bajillion remixes the material is destined to spawn (some of which will be actually worth your while).

Once “memrise” made its surprise arrival a couple days back, it was pretty clear that producers would start racing to their respective laptop labs anxious to get a headstart on trying to tweak the joint with their own unique twist, and leading the pack comes this edit from CAPSUN that the UK producer managed to cook up within a day of the original premiering on the World Wide Web.

Lasting only a few seconds longer than its source, CAPSUN’s ‘4am bootleg’ brilliantly lives up to its title, re-configuring “memrise”‘s trippy sonics into a woozy billow of psychedelic alt-soul serenity that registers as the kind of blurried-eye sonic daydream that could only exist at four in the morning, all the while begging, no, outright demanding, a Chance The Rapper-like freestyle blaze to one day lie on top of it’s wavy luxuriance.

Flanked by nightmarish swirls of nocturnal sonic trippiness that neatly complimented his witty, gritty, HBO-ready tales of Trap Lord living, A$AP Ferg‘s 2003 studio debut firmly established the idea of a second superstar being nestled within the A$AP Mob camp, even if, for all its solid display of great production and charismatic mic presence, the album’s main takeaway was how much it promised that the best was yet to come from the Harlem rhyme slinger.

For the freshly dropped mixtape Ferg Forever, that prediction gains further weight, with Ferg masterfully wading his way through a versatile collage of vibes that hopscotch from island-dipped bangers (“Jolly”) and twisted B-boy exercises (“NV”), to a large chunk of old-school laced, bop-worthy anthems (“Doe-Active”, “Weaves”, “Dope Walk”, “Now”) and an equally sizable series of revealing lyrical snapshots that touch on everything from how the behavior of his closest family members in the past influenced his present (strikingly personal “Uncle” and “Commitment Issues”) to a burgeoning career in which he’s found marinating in the awe of receiving love from musical heroes Lauryn Hill (the Big K.R.I.T.-produced “Bonnoroo”) and Clams Casino (the Casino-helmed, Ferguson-referencing closer “Talk It”).

One of those well-compiled freebie releases that could have easily succeeded in official studio release form, Ferg Forever bulges with single-ready cuts full of far-reaching, radio-piercing promise, and the best of this bunch arrives in the form of “Real Thing”, one of a handful of tracks aided by the production expertise of collection MVP Stelios Phili.

Slicked out with lush washes of synth and sharp snaps of bass and drums that recall a deep Cameo album cut, “Thing”‘s soundbed rewinds us back to summertime pleasures in its warm funk fantasia brew, but just as impressive is the pop smarts Ferg puts to work here, flexing some Childish Gambino/ Theophilus London-esque waves with a smoove, sung-rapped tribute to a seducing lady love (here, voiced by TDE First Lady SZA) that’s got him giddily feeling all the sensitive feels.

Sounds like a smash hit to us. Hear the track below, and catch the rest of Ferg Foreverhere.

Thanks to the talents of a slew of rising beatsmiths housed in Soundcloud land, everything 90’s has become new again, especially when it comes to the field of that decade’s R&B. With remix after rework after edit, the past couple years have seen the biggest stars and dopest jams of the era gain a brand new life, and even as we start making our way into a whole new calendar flip, it doesn’t look like the trend will be letting up soon.

Chipmunking out Bran’s puppy love-obsessed vocals and flipping the original’s chunky jeep-funk groove to an upbeat swirl of synthy house jubilance, Tails delivers an addictive morsel of a remix sure to delight 90’s lovers, footwork fanatics and folks who simply love a dope boogie they could vacuum the house to.

While we have received little crumbles of info here and there regarding Frank Ocean beginning work on the highly-anticipated follow-up to his Grammy-winning breakout debut Channel Orange, we had yet to hear any sort of audio leakage from these sessions (or anything else Frank-related)…that is until the elusive multi-talent decided be a sort of early Xmas gift-delivering R&B Santa and take to his Tumblr to unleash the two minute nugget “Memrise”.

No word on whether or not the interlude-length ditty is set to appear on album No. 2, but the track definitely feels of a piece with the more experimental lane of Ocean’s previous output. Opening with a muddied array of wordless vocals before transforming into a spoken word-esque fixation on a person weighing heavy on his mind (“I memorized your body exposed/ I can fuck you all night long/ From a memory alone”), the stripped-back, barebones song is all shades of artsy abstract, but fueled by the poetic allure we’ve come to know and love from Ocean (and our own desire to hear any new Frank no matter the sound), it’s a cruel tease that’s oh-so-worth the time, sparking our hopes a million-fold of a sophomore full-length arriving sometime sooner rather than later.